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>> Bird charges each vehicle once every five or so rides, or roughly every 10 miles. That suggests Bird isn’t making use of the 30 miles or so it says its scoot
by mushufasa 7y ago
>> Bird charges each vehicle once every five or so rides, or roughly every 10 miles. That suggests Bird isn’t making use of the 30 miles or so it says its scooters’ batteries can last.
that makes sense. Any growth oriented company would much rather lose margins by prematurely charging than risk having an user run out of battery and churn. I don't see that changing much post-saturation.
I could imagine this flaw in unit economics being overlooked by investors and omitted in pitches. Doesn't this destroy the unit economics? Only way around it would be paying independent re-chargers per % refill rather than flat per charge? But I think I remember some firm trying that and the re-chargers would just run it down in their sheds...
- john-foley 7y agoThey could be lying about the 30 mile range. That was my first (cynical) thought.
- atwebb 7y agoOr it is under ideal conditions/weight, if you use a smaller example rider but users tend to be heavier (maybe scooter riders don't like walking as much?) then that would lead to reduced mileage, pure speculation of course.
- jonlucc 7y agoI'm pretty sure there's some serious dropoff in power with lower battery level. I will walk a bit further for a 100% battery scooter rather than take one with ~60% for that reason.
- UncleEntity 7y agoProbably has more to do with the charging people than any bird plan. Was chatting with someone who does that a while back and they go out and collect as many as they can find since they get paid per scooter. Also there's apparently people out there who both charge and ride the same scooter so they get some VC funded free transportation.
- Cacti 7y agoEver used a battery-powered weed wacker or leaf blower? The last 30% is basically worthless.